


The Other Team

by AstraBabe



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Cartinelli - Freeform, F/F, Fluff, Highschool AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-08
Updated: 2015-06-04
Packaged: 2018-03-21 20:22:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3704013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstraBabe/pseuds/AstraBabe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A forgiving modern AU that lets Angie and Peggy be the dorks that they are in a high school setting. Teen angst, braces and all. Also, did somebody say football playing Peggy and cheerleader Angie?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. It Begins

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Cartinelli Modern Highschool AU](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/108113) by vintagecartinelli. 



Angie had slipped into her uniform and made it out onto the turf field just in time. She was almost late (again) for cheer practice and the big game was this Saturday. The cheer team was certainly not holding back. Their routine was going to be chock full of stunts. There was no way in hell they were going to be shown up by the opposing school’s squad and there was equally no way the football team was going to lose to the rival team, the Leviathans, either. Angie let out a sigh of relief as she made her way to the field before the coach noticed. She was new to the squad and still very,very low on the teams pecking order. Her friend, Gloria, convinced her to join. Honestly, it wasn’t so bad now that the spring play had finished. She thought she could manage this, at least. 

The coach worked them until they had every flip, twist, and toss down to a science and finally decided the girls could rest. The lot of them couldn't make it to the side lines fast enough to get their water. Angie plopped herself down on the bristly turf, hand scrambling for her water and her head too tired to turn and assist in finding it. On the other side of the field the football team’s practice was slowing to a halt. Angie eyed the players as they lazily made their way to the bleachers, dramatically prying off their helmets, and craning their necks back in the sun oh so gallantly for the cheer team to take in. Typical jocks pulling their typical moves. Something was out of place though. She raised her eyebrow and then nudged Gloria in the shin.

“Hey, Glo, who is that?” Angie said, gesturing to the football players

“Which one?”

“That one” she said more specifically this time, pointing to the player with their back turned and brown hair covering the top of their uniform number. _Thirteen_.

“Oh, yeah” Gloria laughed “That's Peggy. You tell me you've never seen her before?” Gloria now sat down next to Angie, trying to cool down from practice.

“No, I seen her in class and all but, shes on the football team? Since when?"  
  
“Since forever ago, Martinelli. Don’t you read the school papers? Kid went through hell and back to get Fry to allow her on the team.”

“I had no clue. Sides, does anyone read the papers?” Lorraine, junior editor shot a glare that went straight through her. Angie held her hands up to gesture _just kidding I swear_.

“I guess so, I mean this is only your second week on the team” Gloria continued “Why you asking about her anyway?” she let on in a flirty tone “Do you like her or something?”

“Gloria, I barely know her” Angie glanced over to Peggy now, chugging thirstily from her water bottle “but, shes not half bad looking” and smirked. Gloria’s arm pulled Angie in by her shoulder and her other hung out in the air.

“I can see it now, Angie Martinelli, the biggest gay on Broadway!”

“Hey!” Angie playfully swatted Gloria’s arm down.

“I’m only yanking your chain. You should go talk to her though. No harm in it.”

“What? Are you nuts? You know I can’t talk to girls in general, yet alone girls who are also football players. She’d probably crush me by just looking at me! Besides, who even knows if she’s into girls.” Carol, who had admittedly been listening in the entire time, sat down next to Angie.

“Angie, come on. There is no way shes straight. She plays football. _Football_.” she emphasized again, but this time with her hands.

“You can’t just assume shes gay.” Gloria snorted.

“Yeah, and you can’t just assume she’s straight, neither. She definitely plays for the other team, if you catch my drift.” Gloria knocked Carol in the arm for making an awful sports pun.

Angie nodded her head “Well, that's a good point. Whatever team she plays for, I hope its for mine” and, mustering enough courage, Angie stood up.

“Where you going?” Carol called as Angie made her way from the group of exhausted cheerleaders.

“I’m hoping to strike out.”

“That's baseball, you ass!” Gloria shouted

“You know what I meant!”


	2. The Playoffs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angie musters enough courage to talk to the football player and- oh lord, she has an accent.

Angie had not thought this through. Not nearly enough as she should have. Closing the space between the two of them with each step, she started to second guess herself. _Maybe this was a bad idea, I should go back_ but when the other girl, the football playing girl with the striking gaze, looked up from her spot on the bleachers, Angie definitely knew this was a bad idea.There was no escape now as the other girl’s curious yet strong brown eyes locked onto Angie Martinelli. Angie gulped and sheepishly made the last distance over to the bleachers, gripping onto an unopened water bottle she had snatched. Peggy was sitting on the metal bleacher, momentarily paying her attention to removing some of her gear, when Angie cleared her throat to alert Peggy of her unwarranted presence .

“Oh, hello.” Peggy started, feigning surprise in voice. _Was that-oh, sweet Lord she has an accent_. 

“Hi” she blurted “I’m Angie.” _yeah, reaaal smooth Martinelli_.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Peggy.” her smile was polite. Angie’s brain scrambled to find words.She began nervously. 

“I- I saw how hard you all worked today and thought you might be thirsty, so” she shoved her hand abruptly out into the space between them. Angie didn’t know what words were coming out of her mouth, but so far they werent too bad. Peggy’s eye widened a bit but she then turned her gaze to make direct eye contact with Angie.

“Thank you! That’s very kind of you!” Peggy replied, grasping the water bottle and using her freehand to slick back the messy strands of hair glued to her forehead by sweat. Peggy’s eyes closed as she wrung the cap off the bottle of water and gulped down half of it without any hesitation. Being this close let Angie get a better look at Peggy. It was unbearably hot outside and she could still see the beads of sweat lingering on Peggy’s furrowed brow. Her hair was a deep brown made darker by perspiration that fell in loose curls. It was plastered to her head and still messy from her helmet. Angie bit her lip without thinking. _I’m in trouble_ , she thought. Angie’s keen observance was interrupted ( _no, of course it wasn't starring_ ) by Peggy setting the bottle down and beginning to speak to her.

“Say, how come I've never seen you here before, Angie?”

“I just joined the cheer team, actually and I thought I might as well come over since you were sitting kind of by yourself. I also saw you inhale another bottle of water before and figured you'd still be thirsty. Guess I wasn't wrong. ” Peggy laughed a little.

“Company is always appreciated. So how do you like it?”

“What” the cheerleader blanked.

“Cheering?”

“Oh, yeah it’s not so bad. My friend Gloria convinced me to join since the Spring play is over and all. How about you? How’s football for ya?”

“It’s...good” her response was unenthused “I love the sport but my teammates can be kind of difficult.”

“Bummer. How come?”

“It's like you have a pair of breasts and suddenly you're not qualified to be tackling guys bigger than you to the ground, even if you're the one scoring.” Angie laughed a little too hard at her joke but tried to cover it up by talking

“Aw, I’m sorry.” Angie's eyes suspiciously glanced side to side before she leaned in a little and said "don’t let them know, but out of all of them today I think you worked the hardest.”

“Were you watching?” Peggy joked in a lighthearted tone. The two of them laughed but a nervous pang swept through Angie.

“Anyway, I think what you’re doing is really brave being the only girl on the team and all. How’d you even get this tough? You grow up with a lot of brothers?”

Peggy shook her head “No, but I used to play rugby in England and decided I should continue something like it here.” 

“You must’ve had to take a lot of crap from Ms. Fry about this, huh?” Peggy rolled her eyes.

“Oh like you’d never believe. I still get glares from her in the hallway.”

“You and me both. The one time I decide to cuss up a storm at the boys from my health class and she walks by. I still get looks from her.”

“Why did you curse them out?”

“They were being immature, as usual.”

“Oh, I get you. I have the same problem with this lot.” she gestured to her male counterparts on the team. 

“Forget about em’." Angie dismissed them with a wave "You're probably ten times tougher since you gotta put up with Fry _and_ these knuckleheads.” Angie thought she detected a hint of blush from the other girl, or perhaps it was sunburn starting to set in. Angie liked to believe in the former. Just then, a shout came from the direction of the cheer team, beckoning Angie back to them and away from the gorgeous football player. Angie turned her head and frowned.  
“Aw, man I’ve gotta go they're calling me back. Will I see you around?”

“Yeah, definitely.”

Angie waved as she scampered back to her team “Later, English!”

Peggy put her hand to her chin and thought _English, huh?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i think every chapter will be named after a sports related term just for the sake of making bad puns.


	3. Game Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angie returns to her friends and Carol offers help to set Angie up with that damn gorgeous girl.

Angie’s rushed return was greeted by Carol and Gloria giving her thumbs up and patting her shoulders.

“Nice job! Did you score?” Carol commended.

“What?”  
“We saw you working it, she was totally into you.” Gloria spoke 

“You must have terrible eyes. I spoke to her for, like, three seconds. There is no way she’s into me. She probably didn’t think twice about it. ”

“Give yourself some credit” Carol said promisingly “you might be a nerd, but it didn't look that bad.”

“I am not a nerd!”

“You're a huge theater geek, shut up.”

“You're the one in AV club! And I know you use Dottie’s Netflix to watch Star Trek!”

“What, no I do not! Who told you that?”

“Gals, gals!” Gloria intervened their squabble “you're both huge fucking nerds but there's more serious issues at hand.” she then turned and put both hands on Angie's shoulders  
“Angie...” she paused for effect “ _was she hot?_ ”

“Oh my god”

“It’s a serious question!” Carol said in defense of Gloria. Their eyes burned into Angie, expectantly awaiting affirmation. She looked down and smirked.

“Oh my god, she is. You’re so gay.”

“I cant help it! She was all roughed up from practice and you should’ve seen how pretty her eyes were and ah- she has an English accent.”

“Nice! Are you gonna see her again?” Carol asked. Angie just shrugged.

“She said yeah but I don’t know her too well outside of football. It’d be weird.”

“Yeah, but you could change that! Don’t you have any classes with her?” Gloria inquired.

“Italian, but she sits real far away. She has her own friends there too. I’d die if I tried approaching her there.” 

Suddenly, devilish smile crept upon Carol’s lips.“I have an idea.” 

Angie narrowed her eyes suspiciously at her friend. “What type of trouble are you planning?” 

“I know someone who could help me help you.”

“Oh christ,who?”

“Ten dollars it’s Coleen.” Gloria chimed in

“Oh god is it Coleen?” Carol frowned at Gloria for ruining her surprise. “Yeah, it’s Coleen.”

“Carol, you know she hasn't talked to me since Seventh grade sleep-away camp. There is no way she’ll help you.” Flashes of camp memories whirred through Angie’s mind. Just thinking about it made her shiver.

“Yeah, but it’s for a greater cause: me setting you up with Carter over there.She could tell me everything you need to know about to get close to Peggy, and we’re decently friendly so it wouldn’t be weird. She would help me out.”

“Yeah but she would never help me out. She’s bad news. I don’t get why you always insist on-” Gloria realized the once lighthearted conversation was turning tense so she decided to intervene.

“ _Guys_ , it’s whatever.” they both looked to her now and Gloria smiled “Just don’t tell Coleen about Angie. Be sly about it.”

“Don’t make it weird, all right?” Angie sighed

“No promises!” Carol winked as she strode off with Gloria, following the team to the locker room.


	4. Take It and Run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peggy pays Angie a visit in the halls

The next day in between classes, Angie stood idly at her locker forgetting which books she needed. It was halfway into the year and she still had trouble remembering her schedule. Pondering, she looked into her locker mirror and spied Peggy walking down the hall with Coleen. A wave of nervousness took over her and she pretended to be fully invested in rooting through her locker. She still couldn’t help her eyes trained on the mirror as Peggy’s reflection and lovely, silvery voice grew closer. She watched Peggy smile, say something to Coleen and then part from her side. Angie only noticed Peggy happened to be walking in her direction when she glimpsed a bitter scowl inch onto Coleen’s face in the mirror. Peggy coughed and Angie was saved from dwelling on her thoughts about Coleen. Angie turned to face the girl now. This was their first proper meeting, really. Angie was out of her dangerously short pleated skirt and likewise Peggy was not in her shoulder pads and jersey. If Angie had thought the brunette was pretty yesterday in her bulky sports gear, today she was outright stunning in her everyday looks. Her curls were still loose and only just brushed the tops of her shoulders. Her lips were finished with a lovely red and eyes were done with a striking eyeliner. Angie blushed as she realized she’d let her eyes swoop down over Peggy to- hot damn, those legs. They’re were godly. She hoped the other girl didn’t notice her ogling. They both stood there for a moment, a bit too shy to say anything while they awkwardly shifted in their shoes.

“Hey, Angie.” Peggy broke the small silence. Angie reluctantly redirected her eye contact, and blushed thinking Peggy might have noticed.

“Oh hey, English” Peggy had been staring her square in the face the whole time. Either she noticed or didn’t care.

“I saw you when I was walking and wanted to come over to say hi.” She wanted to say hi. What a dork. Peggy’s voice was pure. She had seen the blonde and nearly jumped at the chance to come over and talk again. For the sake of her friend, she had to politely dismiss herself from their conversation and then walk over. Peggy wasn’t dumb and anyone with a brain could tell how tense Coleen got around even just the subject of Angie. Angie..there was something about her she couldn’t place, but she didn’t particularly question it or care to, anyway. Perhaps it was because she was the only girl who had come over and talk to her from the cheer team while the rest hung around the boys and draped their arms around them. Maybe she wanted the football player privileges too (though she’d never admit it) but mostly she was just ridiculed. She knew people whispered about it now and then but she was too headstrong to care. Too headstrong to let people know she cared, anyway. 

“Aw, did ya miss me?” it was Peggy’s turn to blush now. Truthfully, she did. Thankfully Angie’s laughter saved her from having to respond.

“What class you have now?” Angie asked to follow up her flirty remark. This was how the girl flirted. She made dallying remarks and followed them up with her own laughter in case the audience was scared she was serious. In fact, she was but it was sometimes risky if the other person didn’t feel the same. It worked best with girls though because it made her difficult to pin down: was she being flirty or just friendly? It’s a mystery!

“I have debate. How about you, Martinelli?” seeing the blonde grin at her mutual use of a nickname made Peggy smile as well.

“I’ve got geometry” Angie groaned dramatically and rolled her eyes “kill me now. After that, I’ve got Italian though.”

“Aren’t we in the same class?”

“Oh yeah, lookit that.” _Oh gee what a coincidence I totally never noticed_

“I feel rather silly that we haven’t really sat together before, though.” Peggy looked down self-consciously “You should sit next to me today. I think you’d like my friends, too.” 

“Yeah definitely” Angie replied a little too quickly and now they both avoided eye contact.

“Cool!” Peggy started to back away now, realizing they'd spent too much time in the hall together right before a class

“See you then!” she called and left the cheerleader with a wave. Angie watched the girl trail off and out of sight. She was whipped. Totally whipped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> long time no update! next part will be out real soon then we'll get to angstin' and awkward teen romance


	5. Bad Play

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angie thinks she's smooth and Carol attempts to get help from Coleen.

Angie almost sat in her usual seat in the back of the class until Peggy unabashedly flagged her down with a wave. Before she could take a seat to the right of Peggy, someone had sat down in it. Angie was never the one to be shy, in fact she was rather extroverted, but at this she stopped in her tracks and reconsidered sitting in the back again. Peggy on the other hand must of known this boy well seeing how her head whipped around at him and how she gave him the death glare.

“Excuse me Howard but I was saving that seat for my friend.”

“C’mon Pegs I always sit here” he reclined in his seat a little.

“Could you please move” Peggy raised her brow at him.

“But-“

“Thank you that’s so kind of you”  
Howard gave her strange look but slowly widened his eyes and gave her a coy smile. Peggy responded with an eye roll. Angie promptly took the vacant seat, feeling a little guilty but not guilty enough to willingly give up her seat next to Peggy.

“Sorry about that, he’s rather stubborn.” Howard seized this opportunity to intrude.

“And he has a name. Name’s Howard Stark.” he cordially stuck out his hand for Angie to shake. An quaint gesture, sure, but it didn’t stop him. She promptly shook his hand.

“And who might you be?”

“Oh I’m Angie. Nice to meet you.” Peggy opened her mouth to speak but Howard kept talking.

“Say, have you always been in this class?”

“Yeah, I have been.”

“What a shame I haven’t noticed a girl as lovely as you before.” he slipped another coy smile and Peggy’s eyes shot straight to him though Angie didn’t seem to notice.

“All right Howard that’s enough. I’d appreciate if you’d let me get to know my friends before you start to corrupt them.”

“Just being polite.”

“Mmhmm” Peg rolled her eyes again and Howard turned to his desk.

“Sorry” she said in a quieter voice “he’s a bit of a flirt.”

“Don’t blame him, I am just that irresistible” she winked.

“You're almost as bad as he is” Peggy laughed then continued “So how was geometry?”

Angie slumped over her desk  
“Fucking boring. And debate?”

“Frustrating, really. It only raises my blood pressure.”

“I bet you never lose an argument,though.”

“You’re right, I’m just that good” and now Angie laughed in return. The two continued to chat without noticing that the teacher had pulled out a stack of papers and was passing them out until the papers were whapped onto their desks. Peggy ignored the paper and kept talking but Angie glanced down at them.

“Oh sweet, our quizzes from last week. I almost forgot.” 

“ _I wish I had_ ” she heard Peggy mutter under her breath.

Angie was quite confident she’d aced it, just like every other test and quiz in her Italian class. She’d grown up learning the language and became fluent in it before English. A quick flip through the papers revealed she was right; she’d gotten a ninety-seven. A sideways glance over to her friends desk showed her the way Peggy went through the sheets cautiously, afraid to flip to the last page where the teacher had written the score. When she had, she watched her grimace then look away as if nothing had happened. Judging from her reaction, she must not have done well. However, she thought, doing bad by her standards is probably a ninety-eight versus a hundred.

“What’d you get?” Howard piped up from behind her.

“Ninety-seven” she replied.

“Nice! How about you, Pegs?” he turned his head to her with what can only be described as a shit eating grin.

“Screw off, Howard. Take a wild guess.”

“Sixty-nine”

“I swear to god you’re five.” she turned her back to him and he turned to his side to talk to someone else.

Angie felt bad for Peggy now, especially after disclosing her higher grade and she didn’t know what to say.

When the teacher was done giving back papers, he stood at the front and announced that the chapter test would be Monday.

Angie watched Peggy put her head down and groan. 

“What’s wrong?”

“The game is this Saturday and I’m shit at Italian. I don’t understand half of the chapter and the test is on Monday. I’ll have no time learn this on my own and the fact my Lit paper is due Tuesday doesn’t help either.” she groaned again. Angie had an idea.

“You know I do know Italian very well. If you don’t get something, I could help you.”

The girl raised her head off the desk.

“That would make my life immensely easier and so much better.” Peggy paused, and her gaze softened “Do you think you could come over?” 

Angie was surprised at how she felt her heartbeat pick up. _Get it together, Martinelli. Christ, is she staring? Yep, she’s staring. Say something._

“Really?” Angie unwittingly blushed, recalling the brunette’s sincere tone.

“I mean, if you’re not busy! And any time that works for you is good for me.”

“Totally, I wouldn’t mind. We’d get to hang out and I could teach you all the swear words as an added bonus.”

“That’d be awesome. Does Friday work for you?”

Angie smiled. _Hell yeah, Martinelli._

….

The bell rang and the halls flooded with students. Coleen slowly put her stuff together at her desk while everyone else walked past. Before she turned to leave, she heard a voice come from behind her.

“Hey, Coleen” 

She turned around

“Oh, hey Carol. How are you?”

“I’m good but I was wondering something.”

“Yeah?”

“You’re basically best friends with Peggy right?”

“Yeah, we’ve known each other for a while. Why do you ask?”

“Could you possibly, oh I dunno…help a friend out? One of my friends really likes her and I thought you could tell me someth-“

“One of your friends?” her tone grew wary “ _Who_?”

“I’d rather not say.”

“I can’t help you if you won’t tell me who it is.”

Coleen had a creeping suspicion of who it was. She’d seen Peggy walk over to Angie this morning and leave her to walk by herself. This struck her as odd. Peggy had never spoken to Angie before and was definitely uneasy when she walked over. Coleen assumed that this friend was Angie and immediately grew annoyed. She also recalled the incident in seventh grade, which no one else knew about and if they did, Angie would have hell to pay. Peggy didn’t ask much about what happened in seventh grade and Coleen wanted to keep it that way.

“No. I’m not going to do anything to help _her_.” the way she said the last worde practically oozed with vitriol. This was going every other way but smoothly and not how Carol thought it would have played out.

“Oh no, it’s not who you think it is.” she rushed “It’s someone else.”

“Are you sure?”

“It’s me!” Carol squeaked. _God damnit._

“What?”

“Yep, you got me.” Carol laughed nervously.

“Oh” she sounded equally shocked and disappointed. Coleen looked around awkwardly to avoid making eye contact. 

“I just wanted to know if Peggy, y’know maybe liked girls, too? I know she had a boyfriend and stuff but-“Carol hoped if she kept talking, the situation would get better.

“Sorry" she cut her off "I know you’re my friend but I don’t feel comfortable with _this_.”

she her hand gesture vaguely swept over Carol.

“What do you mean?”

she said, screwing up her face in confusion.

“Helping you out with this. I mean, you do you, but I don’t really support it.”

Coleen picked up her bag and walked to the door. Before she put her hand on the knob, she looked back and said sorry with shrug, and then left.  
Carol headed to lunch a bit dazed and slightly angry from what had just happened. _What the hell? It's 2015 not the 1940s. People are supposed to be passed this by now._. She was confident at first that Coleen would help her out but this was unexpected. Especially since it came from the girl who was normally sweet as anything. She’d have to tell Angie that her idea was a bust, and also, possibly, to watch out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry I'm crap at updating consistently! I hope you enjoy!

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first contribution to the fandom and first post on Ao3. Feedback is welcomed and encouraged! There will be more but i havent grasped how to post this as a multi-chapter fic yet so oops.


End file.
